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The Classic Album series continues by taking a look at one of the biggest acts of the 80’s; Duran Duran and their 2nd LP RIO. It was this album that spawned such hits as “Hungry Like The Wolf”, “Save A Prayer” and the title track. The songs on RIO were all over the radio and music video stations such as MTV and Much Music.

Heavy on the video aspect of this album the interview segments with Simon, John, Roger and especially Nick shed a new light on the songs. Upon watching this documentary it is clear that Nick is the mastermind behind this band. It is his insight and recollections that show us how it all happened and RIO became such a huge seller. The biggest surprise facts was that they had some of the album remixed to make it more saleable to the American public as that market had a major emphasis on the radio and club scene. This was something that had to be done to break the band in the states. The videos for “Hungry Like The Wolf” and “Rio” helped push the album sales as they were played nonstop on music video channels and shows and the video for “Girls On Film” caused such a stir that you couldn’t help but take notice of the band.

The live section of the ‘Special Features’ is quite a treat as you get the band now doing some of the classic RIO songs. The slightly updated and more modern sounding versions of “Hungry Like The Wolf”, “Rio” and especially “Save A Prayer” are quite refreshing and interesting to hear. On “Save A Prayer”, Nick’s keyboards and Simon’s vocals are easily the strongest elements of the song.

A fantastic and intriguing documentary on the RIO album. More emphasis on the actual recording and making of the music would have been more appreciated rather than on the making of the videos of the songs.